Disclaimer: Wide Spread Panic does not own the Transformers, only my poor, battered OC Joey. Maya, Knight, Havoc, and Catastrophe belong to Chaos Knight and are on loan with permission.
Ch.26: Party
Sides trailed down the corridor in the wake of his twin carrying the prone femme. The two smaller twins followed on his heels, anxiously hovering. They fussed at the red Lamborghini constantly, worrying over the femme in his arms. Sunstreaker periodically snarled at them to shut up. Havoc and Catastrophe had learned by then to keep out of reach of the irritable yellow warrior.
Ratchet was closing up Jazz's chest as they entered the med bay. Sideswipe glanced at Jazz's still form and then quickly averted his gaze. Ratchet peered at Sideswipe, the femme and then at the younger set of twins.
"The pit did they come from?" He growled as he indicated an empty berth. Sideswipe set the femme down carefully as Ratchet gently pushed him aside and scanned the femme.
"Found them in the desert," Sideswipe answered with a shrug, glancing around the med bay. He straightened a little as he spotted Joey and she smiled at him faintly. He reached over and picked her up smiling. "I thought you died," he commented.
She smiled weakly and patted his palm. "Hey, we squishies are tough."
Ratchet growled softly. "If you're not injured, get out. I don't need you underfoot," he snapped. Sideswipe nodded and Sunstreaker turned on his heel and stormed out. Ratchet shot the younger twins a look. "That goes for you two too."
"We're not going anywhere, Gramps," Catastrophe snapped and his twin crossed his arms.
The Lambo twins winced and raced from the med bay. A second later, the smaller twins were flung bodily from the med bay. Joey leaned from Sides' hand to stare at the two shocked younglings.
"What's his problem?" Havoc growled.
Catastrophe leapt to his feet and banged a fist against the med bay door. "HEY, GRAMPS! What's the deal?!"
The door abruptly slid open and Ratchet loomed in the doorway with a wrench in hand. "DO. NOT. TEMPT. ME," he hissed warningly and the new twins scrambled backwards in surprise. The door slid shut with a thud in their stunned faces.
"Yeah," Sides drawled as he patted Joey on the head. "You don't mess with the Demon Medic. Well, not if you want to live long." With that said he turned on his heel and strolled down the hall. Sunstreaker smirked and followed his brother.
Havoc and Catastrophe exchanged a look and scurried after the older twins.
Sideswipe placed Joey on the top of his helm and she squawked and tried to hold on. He stretched his arms in the air. "I'm thinking we should do something. Something big to celebrate our victory," he said with a grin.
Sunstreaker snorted loudly as he eyed the unhappy human on his twins' head. "What victory? The Cons kicked their own afts. We retreated," He muttered and the distaste in his tone was ample evidence of how he felt about that.
"Hey, we didn't get slagged and we recovered our human. That's a victory in my books," Sides countered.
Sunstreaker rolled his optics. "Fine. Whatever. What do you have in mind?"
Sideswipe snickered suddenly. "We need some help. Round up the crew!" He declared, pointing dramatically.
Sunstreaker shook his head. The Lambo twins wandered off to the crew quarters area with the younger twins confusedly following.
Ratchet leaned over the femme, his expression frustrated. Her internal workings were different from any he'd ever encountered. Several neural pathway arrangements made no sense whatsoever to him. He pursed his lips and ran another scan. The femme's energy level readings were dangerously low and he rigged up an energon drip to stabilize her system. He lifted her visor and froze. He leaned over her, staring at her optics. He pushed back from the berth, his expression grim.
"Jacks?" He called.
The engineer looked up as he showed Trailbreaker from the med bay. "Something wrong, Ratchet?" He strolled over to stand on the other side of the femme's berth.
"Tell me I'm not malfunctioning," the medic said, gesturing toward the femme. "Her system… how the frag was she functioning like that in the first place? What is she?"
Wheeljack frowned at Ratchet and scanned the femme. He leaned back slightly, his vocal indicators blinking in confusion. "You've got me."
"These systems," the medic growled, indicating several sub-systems in the femme's system, "these look like Con design, but these other, they're clearly Autobot in nature. You can't just mesh the two. The system would reject one or the other."
Wheeljack shrugged weakly. "You got me. I'm just an engineer, though." He peered at the femme with renewed interest. "I don't suppose you'd let me run tests on her…" he caught the medic's glower and shuffled awkwardly. "Never mind."
Ratchet snarled turned on his heels and stormed into his office to do some research. Wheeljack sighed and followed his old friend to help.
Cosmos flattened himself against a corridor wall as best he could as Ironhide tore past in pursuit of Tracks. He stared after the enraged weapons specialist and youngling in bemused confusion. A minute later, Blurr swerved from a nearby corridor and zipped into Ironhide's quarters to re-emerge seconds later laden with cubes of suspicious looking energon. High grade, Cosmos realized as Blurr streaked away laughing.
Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Bumblebee, and Bluestreak were waiting in one of the more seldom used conference rooms when Blurr raced in, followed minutes later by a laughing Tracks. Havoc and Catastrophe had trailed along, keeping close to the Lambo twins for no reason other than that they were the only mechs the younger twins knew.
Blurr merrily handed out the suspicious energon. Sideswipe seized one of the cubes and with a grandiose air, toasted the other younglings. "To victory!" He roared and the other younglings jeered him on as he tossed back the cube and took a huge swig.
The others watched intently as he shuddered and hiccupped loudly. "WE NEED SOME MUUU-SIIIC!" He yowled and the other younglings cheered and joined in.
Tracks took a huge gulp of his and swayed on his feet, before passing the cube to Havoc and Catastrophe. The twins eyed the cube and the older younglings, before exchanging a shrug and joining in.
Prowl looked up as Red Alert raced into his office without preamble. "PROWL!" He seized Prowl's arm and yanked, which had about as much affect as trying to drag a mountain. "You must see this!"
Prowl glowered at him and then slowly stood up, his wing panels rising stiffly. "If this is another one of your glitched up imaginings, I will drag you to Ratchet in stasis cuffs."
Red Alert scowled. "The cyber-zombies are real!"
Prowl sighed. "Of course they are. They just happen to be visible to only you."
"They are sneaky!"
Prowl resisted the urge to throttle the security officer and trailed him from the room.
Loud thumping music permeated the base. Maya sat on the edge of one berth forgotten and bored. She looked up at the sound and frowned. The mech on the berth beside her shuddered suddenly and lurched up. He doubled over, his visor flickering unsteadily. "Fr-r-aaaaggghh. Staaaaabi-bili-zationzzzzzz allllll of-f-f," the mech drawled painfully. He swung his legs over the side of the berth and tried to stand up. He wobbled and grabbed the berth to keep from toppling over. His head raised and he spotted Maya.
"He-el-ello theeeerreehh," He smiled lopsidedly at her and stretched a hand out to her. She scrambled backwards, eyeing him. "Woooon't huu-rt-urt yoooou," he said and he twitched his fingers at her. "Mi-issing all th-the fuuun."
"I don't think you're supposed to be up and about," Maya pointed out uneasily. The mech's lopsided grin stretched even wider. Maya fidgeted and crossed her arms. She sighed disgustedly and stepped into his proffered hand. He transferred her to his shoulder and glanced around. Jazz managed to stagger over to the wall where Wheeljack had stacked several alloys and assorted scrap metals for repair purposes. Jazz yanked a thick steel rebar from the top of the pile and rested his weight on it cautiously. He winced in pain and took a hesitant step.
Maya shot him a wary look as he made his slow way from the med bay.
Prowl put his face in his hands as Sideswipe danced past. Singing.
"Weeeeeee are the champions, my friiiiiends! AND weeeee'll keep on fighting til the ennnnnnnnd!" Sideswipe howled as he drunkenly danced in circles.
Several other mechs had shown up drawn by the raucous music. Optimus Prime himself had shown up and was watching the chaos with a mixture of disgust and amusement. Until something streaked past him, dropping a piece of armor in its wake. It took the older mechs a second to realize that Blurr was zipping unsteadily about the room, shedding his outer armor in a drunken fit.
Blurr paused his manic speeding long enough to nearly plow into Prowl. He grinned up at the officer and cackled. "I'm bringin' sexy baaaaack!" He yelled and he drummed his palms on the horrified mech's chest, before racing off.
Red Alert took instant exception and chased the stripping and overtly affectionate youngling around the room.
Ironhide jerked as the room's door slid open and Jazz swayed in the entry way. The wounded saboteur grinned dazedly. "Jazz?!" Ironhide snarled in surprise and he grabbed the mech as he almost fell. The little human on his shoulder yelped. "What the frag are ya doin' up?!"
In the lonely med bay, no one was present to see the shadowy figure let itself in. Drift slipped around the bay, his optics glowing as he searched. He growled under his breath as he realized his human wasn't there. He turned to leave, when the prone femme sat up with a start, her optics flaring to life.
Drift froze and his red optics met hers, one blue and one red. Drift staggered backwards as if he'd been punched, unable to break her stare.
"Who- who are you?" He demanded in a whisper.
Knight shivered and reacted instinctively to the intruder. She screamed. Ratchet's office door slid open and Ratchet and Wheeljack stormed into the med bay, weapons drawn.